affirmed the existence of good and evil—whether known by reason or by revelation—and then excluded them from the very category just described, were mistaken.

Furthermore, since both parties denied that God can be characterized by love, approval, wrath, joy, and similar attributes that the divine texts plainly affirm and sound reason corroborates, they fell into dispute—despite their common claim that God never does anything evil—over the following: Is such evil utterly impossible in itself so that His power cannot even encompass it, or is He—exalted is He—simply above committing it and refrains only because of the alleged “rational ugliness” they posit? These constitute the two views.

Both positions are deviations of the same sort as the foregoing pair: they fail to distinguish, in His creation and command, between guidance and misguidance, between obedience and disobedience,